Dianthus (pink passion) stems drooping!

See picture attached. To both Dianthus containers. If anything the one at the back is slightly worse. Any ideas why this is happening? And anything I can try to remedy it? The obvious answer that it's not had enough water but I don't think is the case for this one...

 

Hi Ben,

Do they look like the stems have snapped and are leaning over ?

I have one that went like that more or less overnight.

If it is this that's happening, it's due to sudden changes in heat/atmospheric conditions.

I've had it happen to a new one of mine ( Pierrot ). I think what caused it was that the temperatures have jumped from around 12 deg up to 28 deg over a couple of days. When this happens it's hard to keep control of the watering and humidity so the stems just crack inside and then bend.

There is really no cure for it except to keep your eye on the watering etc.

There is no disease or owt nasty. The best thing to do is cut off the damaged stems near the base.

One thing to remember with any of the Dianthus family is that they don't like any part of the plant to be underground, they like to be planted with all the stems above soil level.

 

Thanks Anthony, really informative post. I suspect it must be the temperature situation then, yes. The stems themselves don't feel like they've "cracked" they just look and feel bendy, so in that case perhaps if the temperature stabilises they will recover they're shape? It's a shape is all, as many of the stems still have buds awaiting to open. I am pretty sure I did plant with stems above soil level, as per the planting instructions... well in any case I'll keep an eye on them and continue to water well during this hot weather.

Cheers again.